“I wouldn’t take Adam’s piece, but I’d take yours.” She ran toward the table.
Adam ran after her, giggling. Aaron groaned as he got up and followed them in. “I bought two. Figured one for you and one for us.”
Adam’s large brown eyes stared up at her. “You eat a whole pizza, Renee?”
“Sometimes, but today I don’t think so.”
“Wow, Daddy, I never saw someone eat a whole pizza before.”
The three of them laughed, the strain momentarily broken.
They enjoyed the evening together in spite of the constant undercurrent of tension in the background. Aaron had to be filled with tons of questions. What had the detective told him that he hadn’t told her? Should she make an appointment to lay everything out for Detective Diaz? Having her word challenged had always been something she fought. She’d seen an aunt who lied to everyone. Her parents, what little she could remember of them, had always been honest with her. She tried to live her life after their example.
Aaron lifted Adam into his arms. The poor boy was dragging but hadn’t fallen asleep. “I’ll call you,” he whispered.
“I’ll be here.”
He reached out and held her hand. “Get some rest, Renee. The zoo will wear you out.”
“Oh?” At least he believed her. She smiled.
“Good night.” Aaron squeezed her hand.
“Night. Good night, Adam.” She leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek. The boy’s eyes fluttered. “Take the poor boy home. Call me after he’s settled.”
“I will. Bye.”
She waved them off and watched them until they stepped into the elevator, then closed the door. She turned to clean up the kitchen, then realized she hadn’t latched the dead bolt. Correcting her mistake, she marched into the kitchen, pulled the phone down from the charger, and immediately called the police.
“Detective Diaz, please.”
“One moment,” the female voice responded.
“This is Detective Diaz. How may I help you?”
“This is Renee Austin. I think we need to have a talk.”
“Oh? Is there something you forgot to tell me?”
“What I’d like to tell you and what I’m going to tell you are two different things. First, I won’t say what I feel because I’m a Christian and the Lord wouldn’t be pleased with me for saying such things. Second, there’s obviously been some sort of problem with Brent Cinelli’s memory if he’s telling you that I’ve been carrying a torch for him. I’ve been angry at him, no question, but it’s not because I’m so desperately in love with him that I can’t see myself living without him. In fact,” she emphasized and took another breath, “sitting on my counter is an offer from him to come back and work for him. Doesn’t that sound strange if I’m supposedly chasing after him?”
“First, calm down, Ms. Austin.”
“I am calm,” she protested.
He coughed.
“Oh, all right, I’m steamed. But I’m being accused of something that isn’t true. What can I do to correct the situation?”
“For starters, I’d like to see that letter.”
“I haven’t opened it.” Renee held the envelope in her hand.
“Perfect, then we can open it together, and I will know for certain you didn’t forge the documents inside.”
She dropped it back to the counter. “You actually think I’d do that?”
“Look, I’ve done a check on you, Ms. Austin. The most I’ve come up with is a New York State driver’s license. By the way, did you know you’re supposed to get a driver’s license from Florida within thirty days of moving here?”
“Yes, I just haven’t had time. Are you going to arrest me for that?”
He chuckled. “No. But I’d like to see your Florida license by the end of next week.”
Renee groaned. “Fine, I’ll skip work for a day and get my license. Happy?”
“Some. Look, I know you and Mr. Chapin seem to have a more personal relationship, and this business with Mr. Cinelli makes for some interesting suppositions.”
“Trust me, you haven’t gone anywhere with the Psych 101 on that one that I haven’t gone myself. Look, I’ll fill you in with all the horrid details of my relationship with Brent if I must, but I can’t prove my story over his. And I doubt there’s anyone working for him at the moment who would dare say anything contrary to what he’s said.”
“Are you saying his employees lie for him?”
“I’m saying he calls it company loyalty.”
“I see. And what about you, Ms. Austin, what do you call it?”
“I call it lying, and I wouldn’t do it for him. I wouldn’t answer some questions sometimes, but I’d never lie for him. He knew that and kept me from the customers he was being less than honest with.”
“I see. Are you saying Brentwood, Inc., is less than honest in its business dealings?”
“No, I’m saying that from time to time Brent would encourage folks to agree with what he said. He’s a salesman, and sometimes salesmen exaggerate their claims. I would stay late into the night trying to work some of the miracles he claimed the Web pages would do. At the time, I figured I was investing in Brent’s and my future. We dated for two years. He told me that when we married, I’d be a joint owner.”
“Is that why you agreed to marry him?”
She let out a strangled groan. “No. I thought I was in love with him. The fact is I was in love with the idea of getting married. The ugly truth, as I look back on it now, is that it didn’t matter who that man was, as long as I found a good and stable husband.”
“Why was that so important for you?”
“Because my parents died when I was eight, and I was forced to live with my aunt, who had more men than I can remember. It wasn’t a pretty life, Detective. I’m sure in your line of work you’ve seen plenty of children who had alcoholic, drug-addicted prostitutes for parents.”
“I’m sorry. I can come over in thirty minutes—if that isn’t too late for you?” he offered.
“Thirty minutes is fine.” The call waiting rung in her ear. “I’ve got another call. I’ll see you then.” She clicked the phone and answered. “Hello?”
“Hi, he was out cold before I got to the house. I almost turned around so we could talk. Renee, I’m sorry about what Detective Diaz said to you.”
“It’s all right. It’s his job, I guess.”
Aaron snickered. “It might be, but I’d like to see the man use a little more common sense.” He used his toes to remove his shoes and then placed them under the bed.
“I don’t know why Brent said those things,” Renee said. “It doesn’t make sense.”
“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” He took in a deep breath and returned to the kitchen, pulling out a bottle of water from the refrigerator. “You know, the Jacuzzi is here if you’d like to sit and relax.”
She groaned. “I’d love to, but Detective Diaz is coming over in a few minutes.”
Aaron’s back stiffened. “What for?”
“I invited him to. I’m going to tell him every single thing about my relationship with Brent. He’ll probably be bored to tears by the time he leaves.”
Aaron chuckled. “I’ll pray for you.”
“Thanks, you don’t know how much it means to me, Aaron.”
“You’re welcome. Renee, can you come to my house in the morning? Then we can leave right away for the zoo. Adam loves it there and, trust me, we’ll be exhausted by the end of the day.”
“How about if I bring breakfast?”
“What do you have in mind?”
“Fast food, totally not nutritious.” She giggled.
Aaron grinned. “Adam will love you. Personally, I like donuts with lots of fillings.”
“I’ll remember that.”
“Renee, for what it’s worth, I believe you.”
“Thanks, that means a lot.”
“You’re welcome. I’ll be praying that Detective Diaz sees the truth and
moves on to the right suspects. Although I’m totally clueless. Why would they return your personal stuff to you? It doesn’t make sense.”
“It doesn’t, and nothing they returned was that personal. I don’t have much in the way of keepsakes or memorabilia.”
Aaron stretched. “I better get going if I’m going to have all my work done before the zoo tomorrow.”
“Don’t stay up too late.”
“I won’t.” A desire to say he loved her overwhelmed him, but reason won out. “Good night, Renee.”
“Night, Aaron.”
He placed the phone back in the charger, walked to his office, rolled his shoulders, and connected the computer to download. While he was on-line, he decided to check out a few Web sites he’d been bidding on to see what the competition had come up with that he’d lost to.
The first page loaded. His eyes widened. “No way!”
He typed in another page. Anger, frustration coursed through his veins. He picked up his cellular phone and dialed.
❧
“Excuse me, Detective Diaz,” Renee said as she turned to answer the phone. “Hello?”
“Renee, it’s me again. I’m on-line. I’ve found something very disturbing.”
“What’s the matter, Aaron?” She glanced at the detective, his interest piqued.
“Can you go on-line right now while you’re on the phone?”
She heard something in his voice—frustration, anger, she wasn’t certain which. “Sure. Detective Diaz is here. Do I need to do it now?”
“Good, he’ll need to see this too. You can explain to him what he sees.”
“All right. Would you like to talk with him?”
“Sure, put him on the line.”
“Okay.” She cupped the phone and said, “Aaron would like to speak with you. He has something he’d like us to see on the Internet. I’ll boot up my computer.” The detective nodded.
“Detective Diaz. What can I do for you, Mr. Chapin?” she heard him say as she went to her desk in the dining area. What had Aaron so troubled? she wondered.
“I’ll make the contact. Let me see the evidence first.” The detective walked toward her with the phone. “He’d like to speak with you again.”
“Hi. You’re scaring me, Aaron. What’s the matter?”
“Honey, you’ll see in a minute.” He called me Honey. Her heart warmed, and her nerves calmed.
“Okay, the computer’s just about booted up.”
“Good.” His voice quieted. “Connect and go to the jaja.com site.”
“All right.” She paused, then gasped. “Aaron, how’d this happen?”
“I don’t know, but I think someone got into our system long before we realized.”
Tears pooled in Renee’s eyes. Detective Diaz looked over her shoulder as she pointed out the various Web sites she and Aaron had bid on. Five sites had nearly identical copies of what they had put together. Too identical. No one could come up with the exact designs they had. No one.
Once maybe, but five times? No way.
Renee ended the phone conversation with Aaron, and the detective took a seat and patiently listened while she explained what she’d done, how the Web page coding was even the same.
“I don’t know enough about computers, but I have a good pair of eyes. There’s no question those are your designs.”
“I can’t believe they had access to our system for so long.”
Renee tapped in another address. Remembering Aaron’s anger, she fired off another prayer for him.
“Do you have records on your computer that prove you made these designs?”
“Yes.” She opened the window to the file folder for all the projects she’d worked on for Sunny Flo Designs. She groaned.
“What’s the matter?” the detective asked.
“All the files have the last date I opened them. They were reloaded onto the new computers after the break-in. All the dates are wrong.”
“What about backups?” he asked.
“They were kept at the office.” She nibbled her lower lip. “Wait, there may be a record of some sort in the history file from the Web browser. It shows when a file was opened. . .the name of the address and the date. Bingo. Here’s your proof.” Finally something was going right.
“Can you give me a printout of that? And a list of your files?”
“Sure.” Renee hit the appropriate keys, and the printer hummed to life.
“While that’s printing, let’s open that letter you received from Mr. Cinelli.”
“Sure. That’s odd.”
“What?” The detective leaned toward her monitor.
“The designer of the Web page isn’t listed on the page. No one designs pages without having a link back to their business page. It’s a form of advertising. Unless the customer pays a huge fee for not putting it on their page.”
“Consequently, we don’t know the name of the company that’s stolen your designs?”
“You’ve got it.”
“Okay, show me that letter.”
She thought she heard hope in the detective’s voice that she wasn’t guilty. “Here.” Renee handed it to him.
“Go ahead and open it,” he encouraged.
She supposed it was a federal offense to open someone else’s mail. Who would charge him for it? she mused. Taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly, she slid the metal blade of the letter opener up the envelope. Inside was a cover letter followed by a two-page contract.
“Here, as I said, is Brent’s latest offer to me. Please note, I’m not chasing him; he’s chasing me down. Not personally, just professionally.” The detective scanned the various pages. “As I said on the phone, I did a lot of extra work for him, fixed a lot of problems he was even unaware of at the time. Now I imagine he’s realizing just how much I did to keep that office running smoothly.”
“He says here that he’d spoken with you on the phone about this.”
“Yes, he called. I generally don’t pick up when I know it’s him but. . . You know, I think that message might still be on the tape. I didn’t erase it. I don’t have many calls.” Renee stepped over to the counter with the answering machine, rewound the tape partway, and listened. A message from the cleaners saying her laundry was done filled the silence. “It was before this message.” She pushed down the rewind key again. Counting fifteen seconds, she stopped it and listened. Brent’s whining voice came on the tape. “Oh, Baby, I’ve missed you.”
Renee grinned. Not only was his message there, but their entire conversation had been taped. She’d forgotten to turn off the machine.
“Interesting,” Detective Diaz said after hearing the entire conversation. “This does paint a different story than what he claims. Can you tell me what’s in your sealed juvenile record?”
Blood pounded in her ears. He’d found it. She paled. “It’s sealed for a reason, Detective,” she replied, her voice tight. He didn’t need to know; no one needed to know. Why would he even ask?
Ten
A sigh of pleasure escaped Aaron’s lips as he leaned back into the jet stream of the Jacuzzi. He hadn’t planned on a seven o’clock wake-up call from the FBI. It seems Detective Diaz doesn’t sleep. When the man gets ahold of something, he goes at it like a shark on a feeding frenzy. Monday morning Diaz would meet them at an agreed-upon spot. Maybe the accounts were lost, but Aaron might still see some justice come from this.
Resting his head on the rail, he put together a plan to make the company’s computer system completely separate from outside lines. He wouldn’t be taking any risks during the next few months. He couldn’t afford it.
“Hi, Daddy!” Adam stood in his pajama shorts and overstuffed truck slippers.
“Good morning, Son.”
“Are we going to the zoo?” He placed his hands on his hips.
Aaron fought down a chuckle. “Yup, I’m just relaxing before you wear me out today.”
“Daa-dy, we’re just going to the zoo,” he protested.
Oh, to be four when your biggest problem was going to the zoo. “Wanna come in?” Aaron tapped the water for emphasis.
“Will we still go to the zoo?”
“Of course. And the zoo isn’t open yet, so we have plenty of time.”
“Okay.” Adam ran to the changing room.
Aaron chuckled as he heard the thumping of the boy struggling to remove his slippers.
“Dad?” Adam called.
“Yeah, Son.”
“When’s Renee coming?”
“She should be here around nine.”
“Ta-da!” Adam jumped out and posed with his superhero bathing trunks on.
“Hey, Buddy, come on in.” Aaron waved him over.
The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it,” Adam squealed as he ran out of the pool room and down the hall faster than Aaron could open his mouth to speak.
“Dad,” Adam hollered. “It’s Renee.”
Aaron glanced at his wrist. She was early. She probably hadn’t slept well either. He stood and stepped up out of the Jacuzzi.
Renee’s warm smile applied a soothing balm of healing over his ragged nerves.
“Hi.” He returned her smile.
“Hi. I brought semi nutritious and definitely not nutritious.” She held a fast-food bag with the smell of ham-and-egg sandwiches and a long box with at least a dozen donuts.
“How hungry are you?” he teased.
“Now, before you jump down my throat for my weird eating habits, there are four of the basic food groups in this bag. The box contains the necessary food group for the soul.”
“The soul?” He grabbed a towel and started to dry himself off.
“I’m hungry, Daddy. I want the donuts.” Adam beamed.
“After you eat the egg sandwich.” He winked at Renee.
“I’ll set the table while you dry off. Do you have orange juice?”
“Yup, and coffee should be just about ready.”
“Great. Come on, Adam. You can help me.”
“Okay.” The boy followed her into the kitchen. She was good with Adam, and it gave Aaron a sense of peace to continue going forward with their relationship. No matter what Detective Diaz claimed.
Making quick work of changing, he readied himself for a day at the zoo—a pair of shorts with lots of pockets. He always needed pockets when he took Adam places. Adding a comfortable pair of sneakers for extensive walking and a light jersey top, he glanced in the mirror and ran a quick comb through his damp hair.
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